Lawrence Coward, a.k.a. King of All Blacks, through his attorney, Eric V. Kleiner, Esq. has filed a law suit against the City of Englewood, New Jersey. Coward, who is a frequent guest on the Howard Stern radio show, claims his supervisor put him to work on the back of a garbage truck after the supervisor sexually harassed and sexually discriminated against his wife.

According to the suit, the couple also claims that Englewood’s Human Resources division took no action to remediate, investigate, or take sufficient disciplinary action necessary against the supervisor after the Cowards reported the harassment.

Coward, who is an African American, worked for Englewood’s Department of Public Works operating a street sweeper truck for the city. His wife, Jessie Coward, a Hispanic female, works for the Englewood Fire Department as a confidential secretary. In this suit Coward also claims that in the aftermath of the incident occurring as to his wife and co-plaintiff, that the DPW Caucasian Head (James Koth) committed racially discriminatory hostile work acts against him on account of plaintiff’s African American protected status.

In court filings the couple says that Raymond Romney, the supervisor of Lawrence Coward, made it known to co-workers that he had an ‘interest’ in Coward’s wife, Jessie. One afternoon, Romney demanded a hug and told Jessie Coward that if she refused her husband would be ‘put on the back of a garbage truck’. After several refusals Jessie Coward relented pleading with defendant Romney to not do bad things to her husband.

The complaint states that Romney “then took full liberties with plaintiff Jessie Coward by pulling her in tight and getting maximum physical grinding of his body against plaintiff Jessie Coward’s body for his own personal sexual gratification”.

Jessie Coward kept the incident from her husband fearing her husband would take aggressive action against Romney to protect his wife, but the following day Coward was effectively demoted and claims that Romney told him to “tell your wife I put you on the truck.” Then the Cowards made written reports to Englewood’s HR and two witnesses also reported the forced hug incident.

Eric V. Kleiner, Esq In an email, Eric Kleiner, attorney for the Cowards, told the Bergen Dispatch, “this was one of the most horrific sexually disgusting events ever occurring at a City workplace. An employee being forced to make physical contact with her husband’s direct supervisor under threat of the husband receiving adverse employment consequences if the woman did not submit to the supervisor’s demands”.

“Then the supervisor does not get terminated or demoted after he admits to City officials, proudly, that he did what the litigants say he did. Then as is customary with Englewood, they took further discriminatory and retaliatory actions against Lawrence Coward on the job. This includes but is not limited to, a lower level supervisor coming forward and other DPW sources coming forward with inside information directly to confirm that the DPW Head, James Koth (Caucasian) , forced the supervisor to file false allegations against Coward (African American) knowing the charges/allegations to be false and manufactured.”

“The female employees of Englewood should rise up and petition the HR Department of Englewood to be gutted and restructured. Now at Englewood, women can be physically manhandled on the job by supervisors and there is little if no discipline meted out,” Kleiner added.

Lawrence Coward, a.k.a. King of All Blacks, through his attorney, Eric V. Kleiner, Esq. has filed a law suit against the City of Englewood, New Jersey. Coward, who is a frequent guest on the Howard Stern radio show, claims his supervisor put him to work on the back of a garbage truck after the supervisor sexually harassed and sexually discriminated against his wife.

According to the suit, the couple also claims that Englewood’s Human Resources division took no action to remediate, investigate, or take sufficient disciplinary action necessary against the supervisor after the Cowards reported the harassment.

Coward, who is an African American, worked for Englewood’s Department of Public Works operating a street sweeper truck for the city. His wife, Jessie Coward, a Hispanic female, works for the Englewood Fire Department as a confidential secretary. In this suit Coward also claims that in the aftermath of the incident occurring as to his wife and co-plaintiff, that the DPW Caucasian Head (James Koth) committed racially discriminatory hostile work acts against him on account of plaintiff’s African American protected status.

In court filings the couple says that Raymond Romney, the supervisor of Lawrence Coward, made it known to co-workers that he had an ‘interest’ in Coward’s wife, Jessie. One afternoon, Romney demanded a hug and told Jessie Coward that if she refused her husband would be ‘put on the back of a garbage truck’. After several refusals Jessie Coward relented pleading with defendant Romney to not do bad things to her husband.

The complaint states that Romney “then took full liberties with plaintiff Jessie Coward by pulling her in tight and getting maximum physical grinding of his body against plaintiff Jessie Coward’s body for his own personal sexual gratification”.

Jessie Coward kept the incident from her husband fearing her husband would take aggressive action against Romney to protect his wife, but the following day Coward was effectively demoted and claims that Romney told him to “tell your wife I put you on the truck.” Then the Cowards made written reports to Englewood’s HR and two witnesses also reported the forced hug incident.

Eric V. Kleiner, Esq In an email, Eric Kleiner, attorney for the Cowards, told the Bergen Dispatch, “this was one of the most horrific sexually disgusting events ever occurring at a City workplace. An employee being forced to make physical contact with her husband’s direct supervisor under threat of the husband receiving adverse employment consequences if the woman did not submit to the supervisor’s demands”.

“Then the supervisor does not get terminated or demoted after he admits to City officials, proudly, that he did what the litigants say he did. Then as is customary with Englewood, they took further discriminatory and retaliatory actions against Lawrence Coward on the job. This includes but is not limited to, a lower level supervisor coming forward and other DPW sources coming forward with inside information directly to confirm that the DPW Head, James Koth (Caucasian) , forced the supervisor to file false allegations against Coward (African American) knowing the charges/allegations to be false and manufactured.”

“The female employees of Englewood should rise up and petition the HR Department of Englewood to be gutted and restructured. Now at Englewood, women can be physically manhandled on the job by supervisors and there is little if no discipline meted out,” Kleiner added.